nysports

Now that the Mets have missed the boat on signing Derek Lowe, they have moved on to their second tier targets who include Oliver Perez, Randy Wolf (please NO) and most recently Ben Sheets.   Sheets name wasn’t mentioned until Lowe was off the board.  The story on Sheets has always been that he has Ace quality stuff, but is extremely prone to injury.  In 8 major league seasons, he has been on the DL 6 seperate times.

Here are some highlights on Ben Sheets stats:  He is 3 games over .500 in his MLB career.  That doesn’t sound great, but considering he has been on some HORRIBLE Brewers teams, this is better than it seems.  Sheets has made at least 31 starts in 4 of his MLB seasons, and reached 200 innings 3 times, (almost 4 he had 198 this past season).  In the past 4 major league seasons he has had an ERA under 3.82 each year.  His best season was in 2004 when he was 12 - 14 with a 2.70 ERA and 264 K’s.   He also had 5 Complete games during the 2004 and 2008 seasons.

Sheets is apparently a wild card on the Mets list, but I believe he should be moved up above Randy Wolf (older, also injury prone, with less quality stuff), and possibly Jon Garland (although I am a big fan of him).  The best move is for the Mets to make duel offers to both Sheets and Perez and play them off of each other.  Perez has been offered a 3 year, $30 million dollar deal, but is reportedly seeking a 4th year.   The Mets should offer Sheets a 2 year, $20 million dollar deal and see who bites first.

I personally am sick of Perez.  He was a headache this past season, and lets face it, he only won 10 games, which makes him a middle of the rotation starter, not a 1 or 2 guy, as both Perez and Boras are depicting him as.

One side note:  The Mets signed Casey Fossum to a minor league deal to compete for a bullpen spot.  If the Mets use Fossum in the pen, it would give them 2 LHP in the pen.  This would most likely mean a reduced bench for them again, which could end up being a problem. 

Well, that’s my 2 cents… I’d love to hear yours!

The new Jets head coach.

About 3 weeks after the Jets fired head coach Eric Mangini, it looks like the Jets have finally signed a new head coach for the 2009 NFL season.  So Jets fans, welcome your new head coach… Rex Ryan.

Many Jets fans and NFL analyists were complaining that the Jets were taking so long in naming a new head coach.  Well, part of the reason for the wait was that Ryan, was still coaching the Ravens through the playoffs.  That ended last night when the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Ravens in the AFC Championship game, by a score of 23 - 14.

Rex Ryan, is the son of former Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan, has been with Baltimore since 1999, working as a defensive assistant during the Ravens’ championship season in 2000. Ryan has spent time as the teams defensive coordinator and most recently as the teams assistant head coach. This will be Ryan’s first job as a head coach.

It will be interesting to see who he keeps on the coaching staff, and who Ryan will bring in.  I will keep you aprised of this situation as it develops.

That’s my 2 cents… I’d love to hear yours!